Gallery

Poplar Bluff Abduction

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (KMOV.com) – Police have issued an Amber alert for a young girl who was believed to have been abducted from her Poplar Bluff home by a convicted sex offender Wednesday morning.

Abigail Berthoff, 5, was reported missing from her home in the 2100 block of Wood Street around 6:50 a.m.

Police said Berthoff’s mother, Eva Crawford said she last saw her daughter sleeping on the couch in their living room around 10 p.m. Tuesday night.

Police said Abigail was last seen with Jeffrey Shelton, 46, from Poplar Bluff. A person who knows Shelton saw the two together. When asked if the two had ever been seen together before, the witness said, “no.”

Shelton is described as a 6-foot-tall white male. He’s about 175 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.

Abigail is described as a bi-racial female with black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a pink princess gown when she was abducted.

According to the Missouri Sex Offender Registry Shelton was convicted in Fort Hood, Texas in 1989 for sodomizing a 6-year-old girl. In 1990, he convicted for kidnapping, sodomizing and raping a 12-year-old girl. He was also convicted in Texas that same year for attempting to kidnap a 13-year-old girl.

Most recently, Shelton was wanted by the Butler County Sheriff’s Department for abduction and assault.

The Poplar Bluff, Butler County Major Case Squad and federal authorities from Cape Girardeau and St. Louis were investigating.

Anyone with further information about Berthoff or Shelton’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 immediately.